Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate’s attempts to take Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal to Delhi in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam received a jolt Tuesday as a lower court in Birbhum district remanded the latter to seven days of judicial custody in an attempt to murder case.
The attempt to murder purportedly happened in 2021 and its FIR was filed Monday evening only.
Incidentally, Monday afternoon the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi had granted the production warrant to the ED to take Anubrata Mondal to the national capital and question him in connection with the cattle smuggling scam at the agency’s headquarters there.
On Tuesday, after Mondal was presented at the lower court at Dubrajpur in Birbhum district, the public prosecutor prayed for 14-day police custody. The public prosecutor pleaded that in light of a fresh case related to the attempt to murder there is a necessity to take Mondal into police custody for the purpose of investigation.
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However, there was no bail prayer for Mondal by any of his counsels in the matter on Tuesday morning. After a brief hearing in the matter, the judge remanded Mondal to judicial custody for seven days. His judicial custody was pertaining to a complaint filed by an erstwhile Trinamool Congress panchayat member, Shibthakur Mondal at Dubrajpur Police station on Monday evening, accusing Anubrata Mondal of an attempt to murder charges.
Meanwhile, sources said that the ED sleuths probing the multi-crore cattle smuggling have noted the development. “We have updated our higher officials at our headquarters on the entire development. Our legal brains are also discussing the matter and steps will be taken accordingly,” an ED official said.
Senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Kaushik Gupta said that if the new development is to prevent the ED from taking Anubrata Mondal to New Delhi, ultimately the latter will not be able to escape that in the long run.
“There is a limit to police custody tenure. Now it is seven days and later it might be another seven days. So, in my opinion, Mondal might have been able to postpone his New Delhi trip for the time being but will not be able to prevent it in the long run,” Gupta said.